“We have some great athletes and sometimes you can’t try to coach them, you just let athletes be athletes,” Wildcats coach Seth Baxter said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage and that’s what you want in a high school football game. Our special teams, offense and defense all stepped up. It was great to see.”

On defense, Eastern Randolph (1-0, 4-3) held the Bulldogs to just 36 yards of offense in the first half and two first downs.

“It goes back to fundamentals,” Trinity coach Clayton Trivett said. “We didn’t tackle all day and we didn’t do our jobs. I don’t know if that week off hurt or what. We need to go back to the drawing board.

“Eastern Randolph plays good defense. We couldn’t get any offense going in the first half. If we made a big play, it’d get called back because of a penalty.”

Running back and kick returner Dijuan Williams had a field day, scoring four touchdowns — the first, a 25-yard pass from quarterback Corey Newby; the second, a 2-yard rumble; the third, an 86-yard kickoff return, and the fourth, a 40-yard punt return. Newby completed 14 of 16 passes for 133 yards and a score, while Jaron Letterlough led the ground attack with six carries for 69 yards and a touchdown. Jaylin Brower and ShaQuelle Alsbrook also scored. Eastern Randolph finished the game with 210 yards just on special teams touchdowns.

For the Bulldogs (0-1, 3-4), quarterback Aaron Cox completed 9 of 11 passes for 94 yards and both of Trinity’s fourth-quarter touchdowns — an 18-yard pass to Houston Spivey and a 32-yard strike to Scott Dipilato. He also had 6 carries for 36 yards. D.J. Pratt had the majority of the touches on offense, but picked up just 25 rushing yards.

Eastern Randolph scored on its opening drive of the game as Letterlough capped an 8-play, 58-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run.

After forcing Trinity to punt, it was Brower’s turn. On the seventh play of a 46-yard drive, the senior took it 7 yards into the end zone for a score with just over 4 1/2 minutes left in the first quarter.

Eastern Randolph tacked on three more scores in the second quarter — the first two by Williams. After Eli Clapp intercepted a John Wagner pass, Newby connected with Williams for a 25-yard score on the sixth play of the drive. On the Wildcats’ next drive, which started at their own 8-yard line, Eastern Randolph marched to the Trinity 2 and Williams took it in the rest of the way.

Trinity faced fourth-and-5 on its ensuing drive, forcing a punt, which Alsbrook took 84 yards into the end zone with less than 2 minutes left in the first half, putting the Wildcats up 34-0 heading into the locker room.

Not to be outdone, Williams took the opening second-half kickoff 86 yards upfield for a touchdown and then returned the Bulldogs’ next punt 40 yards for a score, giving Eastern Randolph a 48-0 lead with 9 minutes left in the third quarter.